Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/75

 OASSIUS CASTALIA 67 civil war, and followed Pompey, whose fleet he then commanded, in his flight. After the de- feat at Pharsalia (48), he led the fleet to the Hellespont, but having fallen in with Caesar, he surrendered. Caesar pardoned him, made him praetor, and promised him the province of Syria. At the same time Cassius was engaged with Brutus in forming a conspiracy against the dictatorial rule and the life of his bene- factor. Caesar fell on the ides of March, 44, and the senate rewarded his murderers with provinces. Cassius received Syria, where he defeated his opponent Dolabella, plundered its cities to provide means for the war against Antony and Octavius, and returned with Bru- tus to Macedonia. The two ensuing battles of Philippi (42) ended their lives, with the hopes of the Roman republicans. In the first, An- tony defeated the wing of Cassius, who, mis- taking the cavalry of the victorious Brutus hastening to his relief for that of Octavius, killed himself, as Plutarch says, with the dag- ger which wounded Caesar. In the second, Brutus, who mourned him as the last of the Romans, followed his example. II. Cassias Par- mensis, so called from his birthplace, the city of Parma, was also one of the conspirators against Cassar, after whose death he adhered to the aristocratic republican party of Brutus and his namesake Cassius, and fought on their side until their defeat at Philippi. He subsequently joined Pompey, and afterward surrendered himself to Antony, whose fortunes he followed until after the battle of Actium ; he then re- tired to Athens, where he was put to death by order of Augustus. He was a poet of some eminence, not to be confounded with Cassius of Etruria, who is ridiculed by Horace in his Sermones for his facility and poverty of compo- sition, and is believed to be the person alluded to by Shakespeare as torn to pieces in the streets of Rome by the rabble immediately on the celebration of Caesar's funeral rites, and the raising of the people by Antony. CASSIUS, Dion. See DION CASSITJS. CASSICS, Purple of, a pigment used for color- ing porcelain and glass by fusing it with these substances. It is a precipitate obtained by add- ing protochloride of tin to a solution of chlo- ride of gold. The purple powder thrown own is an obscure compound of sesquioxide 'f tin and oxide of gold. It contains of metal- ic gold 39-82 per cent. Its production is a test ~ the presence of protoxide of tin. CASSOCK, a close garment resembling a long ckcoat, made of cloth or silk with a single .pright collar, worn under the surplice by cler- en of the Roman Catholic and Anglican urches. In the Roman church it varies in ilor, being black for priests, purple for bish- ops, scarlet for cardinals, and white for popes. In the Anglican church it is always black, and worn by all orders of the clergy. CASSOWARY (casuarius galeatus, Vieill.), a bird of the ostrich family, the only species of the genus. The bill of the cassowary is long, compressed, and curved to the tip, the upper mandible overlapping the under. The wings consist of five strong rounded shafts without webs; the tail is not apparent; the tarsi are long and robust, and covered with large scales ; the toes are three in number, all directed for- ward ; the inner toe is armed with a very long powerful claw. The head and base of the bill are surmounted by an elevated compressed casque, or bony helmet ; the head and neck are denuded of feathers, the skin being of a blue and violet color, with two fleshy wattles in front. It is a heavy massive bird, about 5 ft. high ; the plumage is of a blackish color, the feathers being loose, and resembling delicate hairs ; the feathers which take the place of the tail are pendent. The cassowary is a stupid, gluttonous bird, living on fruits, herbs, and occasionally on small animals ; it is incapable of flight from the imperfect development of the wings, but it runs with great rapidity, and de- Cassowary (Casuarius galeatus). fends itself by means of its powerful feet. It lives in pairs in the forests of the Moluccas, of New Guinea, and other islands in the Indian archipelago ; in some places it is domesticated. The female lays three greenish spotted eggs, on the bare ground, on which she sits during the night for a month ; the young are of a red color, mixed with grayish. The cassowary, though it approaches the structure of common birds in the shortness of the intestines, and in the want of the stomachal sac between the crop and the gizzard, belongs evidently to the ostrich type, characterized by massive size, absence of wings, strength of lower extremi- ties, flattened breast bone, and hairy nature of the feathers. CASTALIA, a fountain at the foot of Mount Parnassus, near the temple of Apollo, at Del- phi, in Phocis. It was, like the mountain, sacred to Apollo and the muses, which were therefore called Castalides. The Pythia used to bathe in its waters before delivering the ora-